June 11, 2009

'The Taking of Pelham 123'--2 1/2 stars

Entire epochs have passed since New York City could plausibly be called “the biggest rathole in the world,” a charge made by the subway hijacker played by John Travolta in the shiny, gentrified remake (the second; there was a TV version late last century) of “The Taking of Pelham 123.”

But the city really was a rathole in 1974. The original film version of “Pelham” came out that year, same as “Death Wish.” In the post-Watergate era, urban thrillers loved singing that particular song. Draw a line from “The Out of Towners” (1970) through Martin Scorsese’s masterwork “Taxi Driver” (1976), and you end up with a pencil sketch of a great city barely able to hold it together, provoking—demanding—desperate measures in desperate times. The old “Pelham 123” came straight out of this end-of-the-line era, only it wasn’t the end of the line. The city is more sanitary now. Forty-Second Street resembles a mall in suburban New Jersey. There’s an Olive Garden in Times Square.

Director Tony Scott’s “Pelham” remake is like that Olive Garden. You don’t go to either for surprises.

Denzel Washington will be enough for most. In all sorts of genre thrillers (three of them bearing the slick Scott imprimatur) he has delivered movie-star-cool performances that somehow never turn movie-star-cold. Washington is that valuable paradox, the relatable supernova. It’s too bad the movie around him isn’t better—the ’74 edition, propelled by David Shire’s incredibly badass theme music, kicks the remake’s behind all the way to Coney Island—but Washington’s easygoing authority compensates for a lot.

From its first iteration as Morton Freedgood’s novel, written under the pseudonym John Godey, “Pelham” had simplicity and a ticking clock in its corner. The ’74 film starred Walter Matthau as a New York City transit cop locking horns with hijacker Robert Shaw and his cronies, ranging from ruthless (Hector Elizondo) to sympathetic (Martin Balsam). With screenwriter Peter Stone supplying the wisecracks, the movie—loud, fast, abrasively funny—combined hostage thrills with “I Love/Hate New York” cynicism.

The new “Pelham” exists in a post-racial universe, though Travolta’s character, known only as “Ryder,” does have a problem with Italians. Screenwriter Brian Helgeland gets right to it: Ryder and cohorts take over a 6 Train and demand $10 million for release of his subway hostages. Washington plays subway dispatcher Walter Garber, tainted by a scandal (he may have taken a bribe, as we learn early on) but good in the clutch. His cat-and-mouse games with Ryder, conducted mostly voice-to-voice behind their respective microphones, are meant to illustrate how these men are two sides of the same tainted coin.

Helgeland co-adapted “L.A. Confidential,” which was all about compressing and cutting the source material. “Pelham” is the opposite: Its narrative is rail-thin, so the task for the screenwriter becomes one of adding the right meat to the bones. This he does only fitfully well. No matter how many times Travolta gets to say the phrase with the same number of syllables as “melon farmer,” Ryder never emerges as an interestingly malignant adversary. “Pelham” leans hard on coincidence too. Sharpshooter in the dark, just about to fire ... whoops, rat up the pants leg! Washington popping through a subway grate, just in time to see ... his quarry getting into a cab!

Scott and cinematographer Tobias Schliessler pour on the neon-saturated “Crimson Tide”-brand telephoto closeups, spiced with hyperdramatic freeze-frame effects. He’s a reliable hack, but he frames every shot as an isolated dramatic incident, so that individual images rarely develop into a well-sustained action sequence. Because the subway train in “Pelham” stays put for most of the story, the burden shifts to what the characters are yelling at each other. Tricked out with a handlebar mustache that wouldn’t be out of place in William Friedkin’s “Cruising,” Travolta can do only so much with his character’s laboriously scripted Catholic guilt.

James Gandolfini portrays the mayor, whose philandering-man-of-privilege biography pulls from the résumés of both Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.John Turturro spits out exposition like a straight-faced pro as an NYPD hostage negotiator, though his final, meaningful glance in the direction of the story’s hero is the sort of punctuation only Tony Scott would feel is necessary. The movie is predictable and, thanks mainly to Washington’s canny underplaying, fairly diverting. It operates on the same principle the dispatcher espouses near the beginning, as the hijackers’ plan is set in motion: “extreme caution, per the rule book.”

Comments

I have never written to this great paper though I delivered it as a boy and read it today.
Thank you for a well written movie review, and especially for the side article about the theme music from the original.
I love movies and have complained for years that there is not an original thought in Hollywood.
What an excellent review!
I have no time and must run, but I had to tell you there are intelligent people out there reading you and enjoying your insightful articles.

The problem is not that people under 40 are lacking in creativity. It is that the studio system in Hollywood does not know how to harness creativity. Although I don't play video games, I can tell how much creativity and talent is behind many of the video games today. The video game business knows how to nurture talent in a way that Hollywood can learn.

Second, you saw more risk-taking in films from the 70s because movies were much cheaper to make back then. Now, with nine figure budgets, studios want a guaranteed return, which limits the scope of how much risk you can take.

I agree entirely with poster Ron Burgundy. The creative skills level of original scenario authors has plummetted. I can't think of a single re-make of any film that was superior to the original. And, I am convinced that the 'screen-play' computer program cd has been inserted in many Hollywood PCs these past few years.

I really hope that ron burgundy was being sarcastic, because I know a lot of twenty somethings that would say the exact same thing about the overbearing 40+ individuals in our society, let alone the baby boomers.

I usually refrain from criticizing a commenter's writing, but Ron, you brought it up. Number one, you complain about education but you definitely have a problem with punctuation, grammar and complete sentences. Number two, making blanket statements about the creativity of the under 40-set is foolish, inaccurate and reflects pretty poorly on the writer.

Hollywood is not devoid of ideas, it's the majority (but not all) of the viewing public that doesn't have the curiosity or patience to view the films that do have ideas. Coppola has a new movie coming out called Tetro - it looks challenging and intelligent. Just the kind of movie too many people dismiss without giving it a thought.

I agree with "burgundy"--there was no reason to have remade the '74 version. Some classics should be enjoyed, and not remade...also agree with burgundy's comment that ppl in Hollywood can't think out enough of a story--or, I might add, read other fiction that may be adaptable to the screen--but instead resort to remaking movies that in their original film take are classics already in their own right. What's next? Remake Planet of the Apes or Omega Man? Wait, they already did that...

no reason to remake. Hollyweird is devoid of ideas.lets just point the finger where it should be pointed. PUBLIC EDUCATION. not one person under 40 can think,create, develop imagine, write...
anymore. We are nation of idiots! thats about the hope and change I can handle.

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